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United States Patent |
5,131,108
|
Sessa
,   et al.
|
July 21, 1992
|
Intact shoe lacing system
Abstract
A combination shoe, lace and new merchandise indicia and lace retainer, the
shoe being fully or substantially fully laced, and the new merchandise
indicia and lace retainer having a central portion looped around doubled
end portions of the lace and having overlapping end portions secured
together. The doubled end portions of the lace and the new merchandise
indicia and lace retainer are tucked into the foot inlet of the shoe
during storage and are pulled out of the foot inlet for trial fit of the
shoe.
Inventors:
|
Sessa; Scott C. (Ada, MI);
Conley; Gerald (Grand Rapids, MI)
|
Assignee:
|
Wolverine World Wide, Inc. (Rockford, MI)
|
Appl. No.:
|
816666 |
Filed:
|
January 3, 1992 |
Current U.S. Class: |
12/142LC; 36/50.1 |
Intern'l Class: |
A43B 011/00 |
Field of Search: |
36/50,136
24/712,712.1,712.2,712.5
12/142 LC,142 R
|
References Cited
U.S. Patent Documents
526830 | Oct., 1894 | Julje | 24/712.
|
3208164 | Sep., 1965 | Hoyt, Jr. | 36/50.
|
4291439 | Sep., 1981 | Riti | 24/712.
|
4403375 | Sep., 1983 | Bum | 24/712.
|
4458373 | Jul., 1984 | Maslow | 12/142.
|
4553293 | Nov., 1985 | Bum | 36/50.
|
4571854 | Feb., 1986 | Edens | 36/50.
|
4780936 | Nov., 1988 | Breecher | 24/712.
|
4790048 | Dec., 1988 | Arnt | 36/50.
|
4879787 | Nov., 1989 | Walls | 24/712.
|
4967454 | Nov., 1990 | Elieff | 24/712.
|
Foreign Patent Documents |
0079874 | May., 1983 | EP | 24/712.
|
Primary Examiner: Meyers; Steven N.
Attorney, Agent or Firm: Price, Heneveld, Cooper, DeWitt & Litton
Parent Case Text
This is a continuation of application Ser. No. 07/655,844, filed Feb. 15,
1991 now abandoned.
Claims
The embodiments of the invention in which an exclusive property or
privilege is claimed are defined as follows:
1. A method trial fitting a laced-up, new shoe on the foot of a prospective
customer, without the necessity of lacing and/or unlacing the shoe,
comprising the steps of:
providing a lace-type shoe having the following features: a foot inlet
opening and a plurality of lacing eyelets associated with said opening, a
shoelace at least substantially fully laced in said eyelets, said shoelace
having two elongated ends extending from the upper lacing eyelets with
sufficient length to be tied, said elongated ends having outer end
portions doubled over, and a removable, new merchandise indicia and lace
retainer on said doubled outer end portions of said lace, enabling said
new merchandise indicia and lace retainer and said doubled outer end
portions to be tucked into said foot receiving opening for storage;
pulling said elongated ends of the lace and the new merchandise indicia and
lace retainer out of the shoe;
spreading the foot inlet opening to allow a foot to be inserted, thereby
pulling slack out of said elongated ends;
inserting the foot into said foot inlet opening of said shoe; and
pulling said elongated ends of the lace and thereby tightening the lace on
the foot for a trial fitting wherein said steps of spreading the foot
inlet opening, inserting the foot into said foot inlet opening and pulling
said elongated ends of the lace are performed without removing the new
merchandise indicia from the laces.
2. The method of claim 1 followed by the steps of removing the foot from
said shoe; pulling said elongated ends of the lace to tighten the lace;
and tucking the pulled elongated ends of the lace and said new merchandise
indicia back into said foot inlet opening without unlacing the shoe so as
to be ready to trial fit the next potential customer.
Description
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to shoe lacing. When shoes are normally packaged for
sale, the laces are put through the two lowest lacing holes, tied off, and
then stuffed inside the shoe. This technique requires the shoe salesman in
the retail store, or the customer himself, to lace up the shoe prior to
trying it on. A significant amount of time is required for the salesman or
customer to do this. This time is not available for the salesman to serve
others and therefore costs the store money and possible sales. It would be
less expensive to have the shoes laced in the factory, e.g., in the Far
East using lower cost labor. However, if the shoe has been laced up, it
gives the impression of not being new. This is, of course, undesirable in
new merchandise.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of this invention is to provide shoe lacing enabling new shoes to
be fully or nearly fully laced, and yet having the appearance and
impression of new merchandise. The laces are retained in attractive
fashion, enabling the shoe to be applied to a potential buyer's foot as
new merchandise. Extra time is not necessary for fully lacing the shoe.
Moreover, the shoe and lacing enable the potential buyer to put the shoe
on his foot without disruption of the lacing arrangement, for an initial
reaction to shoe fit and appearance on his/her foot. The novel shoe and
lacing involve the use of new merchandise indicia for retaining the outer
end portions of the shoe laces. Even if the indicia is temporarily
removed, it can be subsequently readily replaced, to retain the new
merchandise appearance.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a shoe, shoe lacing and new shoe indicia
combination according to this invention;
FIG. 2 is a plan view of the combination in FIG. 1;
FIG. 3 is a plan view of the combination showing the end portions of the
lacing and the new shoe indicia removed from inside the shoe; and
FIG. 4 is an enlarged, fragmentary, perspective view of the end portions of
the lacing and new shoe indicia.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
Referring now specifically to the drawings, the complete shoe and lacing 10
comprises a lace type shoe 11 having a foot inlet opening 12 and a
plurality of lacing eyelets 14 associated with the opening, i.e.,
astraddle the forward part of the opening in conventional fashion. A shoe
lace 16 is fully or substantially fully laced in said eyelets, the
particular example illustrated having only the uppermost pair of eyelets
not laced. The shoe lace has elongated ends 16' extending from upper
lacing eyelets with sufficient length to be tied. These elongated ends 16'
have outer end portions which are doubled over as shown at 16". These
doubled outer end portions are retained in position by a removable new
merchandise indicia and lace retainer 18, shown to be a paper or plastic
wrap around tab. The new merchandise indicia tab is shown to have at least
one enlarged end portion and a second end portion overlapped and in
engagement with each other, and connected by an elongated central portion
which has a loop that wraps around the folded over, lace end portions, so
that the rear faces of the end portions can engage and be secured to each
other. A suitable retaining substance such as a releasable adhesive, a
"Velcro" hook and loop material, or the like is attached to these mating
rear faces to cause the end portions to stick together. On the face of at
least one of these end portions is preferably a trademark of the shoe
supplier, . such as the mark of the assignee herein, as depicted. The
exclusive trademark assures the potential buyer that the merchandise is
new.
In use, the elongated ends and folded and retained outer end portions of
the laces, as well as the new merchandise indicia, are normally tucked
into the foot inlet opening 12 of the shoe. When a customer wishes to try
the shoe on, the salesman simply pulls the elongated end portions of the
laces and the new merchandise indicia out of the shoe to enable a foot to
be placed in the shoe. There is sufficient slack in the laces to enable
the foot receiving opening to be spread sufficiently for the foot to be
inserted into the shoe without removing the new merchandise indicia from
the laces. The lace can be tightened considerably by pulling on the ends
16'. If it is deemed necessary to tie the laces, the new merchandise
indicia can be temporarily removed and subsequently replaced to retain the
new look.
It is conceivable that certain minor variations of the development may be
made without departing from the novel concept set forth. Hence, the
invention is not intended to be limited specifically to the preferred
illustrative embodiment, but only by the scope of the appended claims and
the reasonably equivalent structures to those defined therein.
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